Tuesday, May 27th 2008 - Welsey Four Months Old

Tomorrow (Wednesday) Wesley will be Four Months Old! He is still the best baby. I remember when Preston used to wake up from a nap and I would think "Oh great :(" Just today I realized that when Wesley wakes from a nap I'm so excited to play with him because he is such a happy baby but more importantly he is such a easy going baby and only demanding when he is hungry.

Thursday we go in to get another 4 shots :( boo hoo. I hate when they have to give them shots because they have no idea what is going on or what is coming. However, I am grateful for shots because a couple of weeks ago a child with Measles was at McDonalds by our house!

His hair has fully come back in all nice and even. We make little mohawks for him.

For sleeping - he takes any where from 3-6 naps a day and sleeps a straight 6 hours a night. He still is my little angel baby - only cries (and really it is a whimper) when he is hungry. He goes with the flow and we take him anywhere and everywhere and he hardly fusses about it.



This last week he discovered his toes - what amazing things those are.


His 2 bottom teeth have been budding for about a month and a half now - still have not broken through but causing lots of havoc when he eats. Those teeth are the darndest things!

Tuesday, May 27th 2008 - Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend we went up to the Hansens' Cabin by Lake Wenatchee. Matthews went to California with Grandpa Matthews to celebrate the 50th anniversay of the ward that Tim grew up in.

We left Friday afternoon and got back late Monday night. It was a lot of fun and full of great memories: Preston pretty much played outside the entire time and got so dirty but he loved it. He was so excited he hardly slept so he is exhausted. The mosquitos were really bad this time. We only saw one mouse this time (Branden saw it) compared to about 5 last time. On Saturday Tom and I went on a date to Apple Annie's Antique Mall (which was the most eccentric place I have ever been) and then to a Mexican Restaurant while my mom watched the 2 boys. We came back around 4pm and Preston would not take a nap for my mom. He was beyond any normal mentality. I took him to the bedroom where he just kept attacking me! I held him down and just started singing until he passed out. When he is up there he just has such a hard time going to sleep.



Sunday we just hung out. We "forgot" our church clothes and mom didn't want to go without us. so Dad shared a lesson with us for our "church" time. We also watched this cute Japanese movie called Totoro. Preston was mesmorized by it.



Dad and Hannah flew in (took them 30 minutes compared to a 2+ hour car drive). Dad kept his plane at the Lake Weatchee State Airport. The runway was a large field of grass! Look at this sign - it says "Please sign the guest book" haa haa. The funniest part was the bathroom though:



Notice the bathroom just says "Women". Lake Wenatchee airport and Preston both believe that a mens bathroom in this area is in the trees.

John Thomas and his friend Nick came and stayed and they climbed Dirty Face mountain. They couldn't make it all the way to the top because there was so much snow - but they got some good pictures with views:



John Thomas, Nick, Heidi and Branden all saw a black bear right off the freeway when they were coming up. It was right by Stevens Pass. When we were going home we saw it too:



All these cars were stopping and people were almost hitting into each other. Tom parked right in front of that car that is parked on the side of the road in the picture. I was freaking out because he was about 10 ft from our car. I said, "You know those stupid people on TV who get too close to animals - that is what we are right now" It was pretty scary but cool too. Tom wanted to throw some food to it but I just screamed at him to go. Heidi and Branden took this picture. Isn't that crazy? I guess he is a very social bear and likes to be around cars.

Some other fun memories:
-Found a frog
-Cluff and Olsons came up Monday to check out the place for Youth Conference
-Preston and Wesley woke up every morning around 6:30.
-I got to ride on the ATV with Preston (something I haven't done yet because I was pregnant before)
-Watched a movie as a family every night
-Wesley's cold finally cleared up from the dry air
-Saw 5 deer
-Apple Annie's - got 2 old books, Betrix Potter Series, Build A Farm Set, Picture Holders
-Mom slept with baby Wesley the first night so I could get some rest. Preston ended up having a tough night so I had to sleep with him :( but thanks Mom!
-Many more memories!

New Member Of The Matthews' Family

On Monday, May 26th Sam Michael Matthews joined our family. He was 5 oz and 9 1/2 inches long. We adopted Sam from Katherine Evans. He is Leonard Matthews' cousin. You can see Leonard on Uncle Mikey's blog: http://michaeltmatthews.blogspot.com/2008/03/leonard-visits-chicago.html

We are really excited about Sam (named by Mikey). Today he had a busy day. Here is where he slept last night:



He went in the Jumperoo for awhile after his breakfast:


Helped Tom work while we went to aerobics:


Helped me organize our daily calendar:


After a busy morning he fell asleep with Preston:


Then he went to sleep with Wesley:


And now he is cuddling with his favorite member of the family: Lily. They get a long great!



We are excited Sam is a part of our family. He is a great sleeper, doesn't need his diaper changed, only needs to eat once a day, never cries, no temper tantrums and he has the prettiest blue eyes. Welcome to the family Sam! (Thanks for the present Mikey and Katherine - it's adorable and we love it!)

Monday, May 19, 2008 - Hot Hot Hot!

This past weekend it was Hot Hot Hot! up here in Seattle Washington. Saturday night our house was 92 degrees! We have an AC unit in our bedroom so we can sleep, but it was pretty unbearable.

All weekend long Tom, Cam and Branden attempted fishing once again (continuing their obsession from last weekend in Bellingham). Cam finally caught a little fish (When I asked Preston how big he moves his fingers apart about 2 inches!) on Saturday morning. Saturday evening they finally got a tip from a kid at Pine Lake Park who told them to use worms and then Cam caught 2! Hopefully that satisfied this fishing desire for awhile??



Here are the mighty fisherman at my parents dock on Friday night:



Preston basked in the joyfulness of water all weekend long: he played with the squirt bottle on the beach at Grandma Hollie's house on Friday then went in the hot tub, played with the hose on Saturday while Tom and I cleaned out the garage (stupid thing to do on a hot weekend!), and then played for almost 3 hours at the beach at Pine Lake Park. Children + Water = Happiness.



Wesley and I hanging out at my mom's beach in the shade:


Summer evenings in Seattle are just so magical. Probably because of all the rain we have endured all winter long.



We have now entered the days when the sun doesn't go down until 10pm and comes back up at 5am. This results in our children going to bed late and getting up early. I am trying to teach Preston was "8 o'clock" looks like on the clock in my room ;) He is slowly learning. I say, "When the big hand gets on the 12 I will get up" then he waits for the second hand to keep hitting the 12 and asks me if it's time yet... ug!

A couple of other fun events this weekend: cleaning up the church Saturday morning - Preston
"helped" me mop, fireside with BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall on Sunday evening - Tom and Branden went up and met him afterwards thus destroying their chances of playing sports at BYU (hee hee), yummy chicken pitas at the Matthews house for dinner on Sunday.

Tonight we went over to a friends house for dinner. It was so fun. These are friends in our ward that we have never really hung out with just our two families - it's usually just a large group. I really enjoyed getting to know them better and our kids loved playing together. I have so many wonderful friends as I am sure you can all tell.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - Lip Sync & Jumperoo

Three bloggin days in a row! I really only like to post when I have pictures so I just walked my lazy buns downstairs with my plantar facitiis feet hurting on every step to provide you all with pictures - because I love you all :) - Sorry I just had to give myself a little credit.

Tonight was the Youth Lip Sync. For the 2nd year in a row Tom was the MC and he did a great job. This afternoon we were coming up with all these Movie Trivia (that was the theme) and it was really fun. He asked me at dinner "What should I wear?" I said, "Wear your tuxedo" Tom said, "That's stupid, that doesn't go with the theme" then he comes down wearing his tuxedo??? He is so funny - everyone kept asking tonight if he rented it for the event (no he didn't - he got it when he went to China).

The YW also sold tons of goodies (scones, popcorn, cookies, cakes, brownies, cotton candy, etc.) as a fundraiser for girls camp so I came home with the biggest sugar high headache ever!! But I bought my favorite - pumpkin cookies!! (I L.O.V.E. pumpkin)

Here is a picture of Tom being MC and Preston standing up there with him.

When we got in the car Preston said, "I had lots of fun at the Lip Sync" He talked about it all the way home. He is finally at the age when events like this are fun and not overwhelming. He was running around sliding all over the gym floor.

My next piece of news is that last week we took out the Jumperoo! We bought this for Preston for his first Easter and spent too much money on it so I was elated to get it out again to use. Wesley love it - his feet don't even touch the ground so we had to put a game under it. This is what he thinks of it:

The great part is that Preston goes over and pushes all the buttons and keeps the music going. This was my job when Preston was little and so I love having Preston around - he is already entertaining him and it's great! Here is a picture of Preston in the jumperoo: They are so different looking - you can't even tell they are brothers

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - Google

I wanted to highlight 2 Google Programs. We already know how amazing Google is (sorry Jan and Microsoft) - but it is! They are both FREE!!

1 - Google Reader: If you find yourself repeatedly visiting a blog to check for updates, or if you just stumble across a blog you want to keep track of, you can easily subscribe to it in Google Reader using the subscribe bookmark.

I login to this every day and keep it open - it alerts me when anyone's blog has a new post. You can find it at google.com/reader

2 - Google Analytics: This is a great tool that will give you data about your website or blog. All you do it put html code on your blog and it will track: how many visitors came to your site, what site they were referred from (where they found your blog), how long they stayed, and lots of other data that is interesting :) You can sign up for it at google.com/analytics

Good Luck and Happy Blogging Everyone! If anyone has any questions or needs help, let me know!

Monday, May 12, 2008 - Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life! Here is a picture of my mom and my mother-in-law. I have 2 really wonderful moms who are a great example to me and help me so much. They are very special to me. Also the grandmothers in my life and the soon to be mommy in our family - Heidi!!

I had a great Mother's Day (of course). Sunday morning we left Bellingham at 8am so we could be at church. Mother's day just wouldn't be the same without going to church and listening to the insiration talks and messages. Also seeing Preston up there singing just melted my heart. He had his arms folded the whole time and did a little wave to me (while keeping his arms folded). I even saw him sing a few words.

This year Tom came up with the awesome idea of creating a personalized Memory game for my mom and Jan. Of course, being the type A personality that I am I had to take the project over, but I have to give credit to Tom for coming up with the idea. Both of them loved it. Here is a sample of the game:

We bought an actual Memory game and then used spray adhesive to put the pictures on it. It turned out better than I thought.

I got a gift certificate from Tim and Jan to Target. My mom called me the other day in Target and asked me for some ideas for a gift. I told her 3 things and to my surprise I got all 3. It was pretty funny: book light, rusk shampoo (my favorite), and a new hair brush.

However, I must say the present this year goes to Grandma Great. I am not a big crier when it comes to presents, but I started to cry when I opened her gift. When I first opened it it was the Willow Tree box and the statue was called "Quietly" I was wondering what it was and then I opened it:

It touched my heart. Isn't it so precious. Of course Tom joked that we needed a red marker to make Preston's hair red.

I got an amazing Stroganoff dinner on Sunday made by the amazing chef Tim (he always cooks the entire meal on Mother's Day - even with dessert) and on Monday we celebrated with my mom and she made TriTips and we went in the hot tub.

I love spending time with my family. I love my boys and I love being a mom every day. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Monday, May 12th, 2008 - Bellingham

This past weekend with went with Cam, Kamaile, Heidi and Branden up to the "Beaver House" in Bellingham (my in-laws townhouse). We had a blast! Of course I forgot to take pictures while I was there. We had 3 different age babies on 3 different schedules for naps/bedtime - and we STILL had fun. The boys went fishing (didn't catch anything - touchy subject), had an interesting Walmart experience, the girls went to the mall, got dinner from Tino's Italian, walked around the lake and even had a beaver siting. We also saw 5 little baby gooslings.

We call it the Beaver House because when we say this Preston knows what we are talking about. The first time we ever visited the townhouse we saw 2 Beavers right by their house. We haven't seen the beavers since but this weekend we saw them swimming in the lake. One night it was pitch black and Tom and Cam were fishing - 2 beavers jumped into the lake right by them and scared them. It was hilarious.

Here are the 2 pictures I did take. First is a picture of Preston doing puzzles (Grandma Matthews had toys up there for him, of course!). Wesley is chilling in the famous blue chair. Jan bought that for Preston because he would not get out of it when we were at the store. We brought it back he would never sit in it again. Jan will be happy to know it's being put to use with Wesley:



Here is Wesley and me (with no make-up!). We enjoyed a breakfast made by Branden. Another great moment this weekend was we finally got Preston to take a shower. I think it was the 2nd in his entire life. It's because of Grandpa's cool shower!



Next time I go I will take more pictures! I am trying to get a new camera because I used my dad's camera for Wesley's blessing and it took great pictures. My birthday is coming soon..... :)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

First - Happy Birthday to my friend Lizzy!

Next - the other day I was talking to my mom and Heidi about how before I had kids there were things I said I would never do and now I am totally eating my words. So today I am going to confess the things I said I would NEVER do as a parent, however, I do them now:

1) Let my child out of the house wearing his pajamas and letting him wear pajamas all day.
2) Bribing my child with candy or food (it's cheap and it works)
3) I said I would always have a very strict bedtime and my child would go to bed early to get plenty of sleep (I believe Preston fell asleep last night at 10:45).
4) I would never let my child drink pop (he had rootbeer last night)
5) I would give my child a bath every day - right now Preston and I have a deal where he only has to take a bath 2 days a week - and only on Sundays do we wash hair.
6)I would only allow my child to watch 30 minutes of TV a day.

Becoming a parent is one of the most humbling experiences I have ever encountered. One thing I have learned about parenting - NEVER say the phrase "I will never......" It will result in a humbling experience.... guaranteed. More humbling is in store for me of course.

However I must give myself a little credit: there are 3 things I am good at: brushing teeth, reading books, saying prayers.

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Yesterday was Wesley's blessing. Unlike Preston's blessing Wesley's was short and sweet - to the point. Tom blessed him twice that he would be healthy. In the circle he was just looking up at everyone wondering what was going on. Our family took up 2 whole benches - Grandpa and Grandma Hansen came and so did John T.! Both Tom and I bore our testimonies. After sacrament meeting we went over to Tim and Jan's house for some Grandpa Tim special hamburgers and other great food with family and friends.

We took lots of pictures that you can see: www.heatherandtom.com/2008/wesleyblessing/base0.html

Here are some of the pictures:




We had to bribe Preston with candy to take pictures with us. His little cousins came too so he was too busy playing with them to take pictures. We were so glad they came to entertain Preston for us. It worked out great!



Four generations picture.


Even by the end of this busy overwhelming day little Wesley was full of smiles:



What a sweet baby we have :)

Today Tom went with his family on a Sailboat through Puget Sound. Then Preston, Wesley and I met up with them for dinner. Tom really wanted us all to come sailing, but I'm glad we didn't.

Tomorrow Heidi finds out whether she is having a boy or a girl - I think/hope it is a boy.

Friday, May 2, 2008

A couple of highlights over the past couple of days:

1) My best friend growing up, Lizzy, came in from Utah to visit me. We went and had a pedicure together and then went to Seattle and met up with my other friend Krista. I really enjoyed catching up with them and seeing them. It seems like when you see an old friend it's so easy to talk about everything with them. I am so different from my two friends yet we seem to get along great and almost embrace our differences. I hope to get a picture from Lizzy soon so I can post it.

2) I got my carpets cleaned on Thursday and my house cleaned on Friday. The house cleaner was supposed to come on Tuesday but she didn't come!! At playgroup I said to my friends "She better come tomorrow because I am NOT cleaning my house" What a snob I am!!! I felt really stupid for saying it, but it is true :) How ridiculous am I? But I seriously HATE cleaning. But I guess everyone else does...... I am just high maintence and would rather have someone clean my house than buy clothes :)

3) Mikey came into town and we saw him tonight. He told his dad ealier today "What if I don't like Wesley?" and his dad had the perfect response: "what if Wesley doesn't like you?" hee hee. Of course Wesley and Mikey fell in love right away. Preston has always had a special connection with Mikey and I believe Wesley will have it too. We love you Uncle Mikey!

4.)Wesley totally laughs out loud now. He is such a happy baby. Today Preston was playing with him on the couch. He was clapping his feet together and playing peek-a-boo and Wesley was just laughing. I went to take a shower and about 5 minutes later Preston came up crying, "Wesley is crying and daddy won't get him" he is so sensitive about Wesley crying (just like his grandma hollie). I talked to Tom about it when I got out and he said, "He wasn't even crying - just whimpering" - I guess it just really upset my little Preston.